


Matchmaking

by Merfilly



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi, Post-Relationship, Pre-Relationship, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-01
Updated: 2011-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 02:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bits of the TARDIS are still in Rose's head, and the TARDIS does feel a slight responsibility to her; maybe there is a solution based on what the TARDIS knows...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matchmaking

The TARDIS felt the branching of events, and knew that she could do nothing to stop the order of time on this occasion. However, she was not above 'stacking the deck' as her Time Lord had once said. Rose Tyler had been part of her, and did not deserve the loneliness inherent in the path ahead of her. Nor, in the end, was she exactly what their Time Lord needed to continue on his own journey. The TARDIS knew just what to do, as she stoked a kernel of what she was to life within the human that had been willing to sacrifice all for the sake of their Time Lord.

`~`~`~`~`

There was a rush of air and pop of pressure all around Rose Tyler as she landed on her bum, aware that her mind was suddenly far quieter than it had been since the showdown against the Daleks on the space station. She'd never made a fuss about the heavy presence that had been left behind by the TARDIS, because the Doctor got odd when she brought up what little she remembered of the TARDIS's plan to save them all.

"NO!" She shrieked, realizing that she had been taken from her universe, placed in the other one, and that the way home was closed, forever if the Doctor was right.

Motion around her was barely noted, and she tried hard to focus, to grasp at that tendril of the heart of the TARDIS still within her, refusing to be defeated, refusing to leave her Doctor alone. She felt the tiniest of sparks of that energy, and only then did she respond to Pete's people.

She would not stay here any longer than it took to understand the quantum mechanics tied into that spark of energy and knowledge far beyond the kenning of a mortal, linear mind. Her Doctor needed her, though, and that overrode all other concerns.

`~`~`~`~`

The conversation on the beach was too much for her Time Lord, the TARDIS decided. She had to distract him, find someone to make him move on and not stay trapped in the fault of loving an ephemeral, linear human.

Luckily, the TARDIS had been picking up traces of an extraordinary woman due to be married soon from this timepoint. Her Time Lord had interesting luck with weddings.

`~`~`~`~`

Rose crashed in on herself, so sure he had been about to say the words she needed to hear. It took a moment to rebound, and then she turned back to her family.

"I'm going home, and nothing will stop me."

Pete swore for years after that her eyes glowed golden with something inhuman behind them.

`~`~`~`~`

The device she built looked like a small cannon, and Pete's scientists remained skeptical, on the grounds that several pieces she had crafted herself defied their earthly science. It was going to be a one-shot deal, one chance to go through and be home, where she belonged.

"You could stay," Pete offered.

"You really could, Rose," Jackie added, leaning hard into Pete for support. She had no wish to sour this further by ranting over the Doctor stealing her baby away again and again.

"No. It's as if I feel a pull on me, no matter what I do to ignore it, mum." Rose brushed at tears she had not expected to have today. "I have to follow my heart, and that is using the machine I built. I have to, because why else would I have known how to build it?"

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence, and then Pete cleared his throat. "Err, right, umm... we'll get to going, then, while the universal walls are so thin," he said, bulling on through rather than admit he wanted nothing more than to destroy the machine and forbid this.

Rose gave Jackie a quick hug, and looked up just as Mickey thundered in, late as always.

"Rose..."

"Mickey, don't!"

Mickey shook his head, and just came close, kissing her once on the cheek. "I'm not here to stop you this time. No stopping you, after all, ever." He smiled at her, a little sad, but willing to let go this time. "Pop him in the back of the head when he needs it, you hear?"

"I can do that," Rose assured him with a nervous laugh.

"And no matter what path you land on, make the most of it," Mickey added, before all but Rose stepped clear of the beam's path.

Pete activated it, all too aware that he might be condemning his pseudo-daughter to a fate worse than death in many ways, but nothing was going to stop her, ever. All he could do was enable her to follow her dreams, no matter where they lay.

`~`~`~`~`

The autos were all straight out of an old-time movie. In fact, they looked an awful lot like the cars from around the time her father had died, in her own world. That was her first clue that maybe the device had not gotten her when she wanted to be, let alone where. This was certainly not London of her own era by any stretch of the imagination.

Rose, ever the resourceful one, set off on foot to find what she needed to know about both the date and location, so she could make her plans from there. When she spotted one of the old red public telephone booths, she knew she had half her problem solved. Of course, her luck was against her, and this one was lacking a directory, but it meant she had a plan's beginning. Wandering on, she knew she'd find another one, and if she was very lucky, she'd find a shop with the local newspaper on display.

`~`~`~`~`

South Croyden was not large enough in the space of only a few weeks. Sarah Jane Smith had found trying to settle into life of a simple investigative reporter nigh impossible once Harry had come and gotten her to take her home. That had involved a trip by UNIT HQ, a lunch with the Brigadier, and a good cry on Harry's shoulder as he awkwardly patted her back and tried to be as comforting as he knew how to be.

Sarah Jane decided to keep her eyes and ears open, an unofficial field agent for UNIT when she realized that her mind had been broadened almost too much for a simple life She managed to get some roving assignments from the press, and leaned on her famous aunt's credentials where she needed to.

She had managed to carve an existence out that didn't have her constantly thinking about _him_ , wondering if he had survived the trip to Gallifrey, if he still wore the same face with all those curls, or if he had changed again. She had moved on, hard as that was when you had been on distant space stations, fought Cybermen, and nearly destroyed an entire species preemptively.

Then came a phone call that made all the carefully welded guards fall off her heart, plant her face in her hands, and just breathe.

Someone who knew the Doctor had found her, and was asking for help.

`~`~`~`~`

Rose watched the small car pull up to the curb, and braced for the shock of actually seeing the women she had finally tracked down. So many times in the four days she had been here, Rose had wished for a bit of telepathic paper, or a sonic anything. A quick pawn of her watch was the only way she had gotten any money, and she felt somewhat guilty for how much she had gotten due to 'its unique design and advanced nature'. She refused to be guilty for leaving an anachronism in a pawn shop though.

In reality, she knew this was a terrible gamble, but she could not go near her old life's roots; the date was before her own birth. She couldn't exactly walk up to UNIT, when they had been wiped out in the Slitheen attack before the Doctor ever introduced them. And she wasn't going to trust the Torchwood of this era at all, even presuming she could bluff her way to their real operations.

That had left Sarah Jane Smith, if Rose had been dumped in England at a point when the woman was back in residence and not traipsing around the universe. Or worse, that Sarah Jane had not yet met the Doctor.

Luckily, Sarah Jane not only knew of him, but was apparently close enough to his impact on her life as to be a bit choked up on the telephone when Rose invoked the Doctor's name.

 _"I knew the Doctor, and now I need help."_

 _"The Doctor... " A hushed, quiet break in breathing and then Sarah had come back with the words Rose had only prayed would come. "I'll be right there. Repeat that address?"_

Now, Sarah Jane was stepping out of the vehicle, and Rose stood taller and felt her eyes go rounder despite herself. The memory of that stately, composed woman she had met bumped into this younger, vibrant woman and caused a dislocation of time and place to truly sink in.

"Umm, sorry to stare," Rose said. "I just... This is awkward from my place in time."

"Your... I think I see. Do get in, so that we can go elsewhere? The Brigadier most prefers I not interview the strange and unusual right out in public where it might provoke a new alien attack, after all," Sarah said, trying to be flippant. Rose had to duck her head in an attempt to hide her smile; that sounded quite like the sturdy woman at that alien-infested school.

"Probably for the best. I get twitchy enough around mannequins," Rose offered.

"Autons?" Sarah asked, as if inquiring as to the favorite blend of tea.

"It's how I met him," Rose answered her, settling in the car even as Sarah returned to the driver's seat.

"Not me. For me, it was a Sontaran," Sarah told her in turn. She pulled the auto into traffic, and Rose let her drive in peace, head full of questions, and trying hard to keep her frustration at bay. After all that time, all those little nudges in her mind, why had she landed here and now, instead of in a time she could have made it to her Doctor's side?

`~`~`~`~`

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be for The Little Bang, but I knew I could not do justice to it and finish it in time to the required word count.
> 
> I have no idea if this will be continued, to be honest. But I am sharing what got written, in case it suits someone else's imagination.


End file.
